I have a dilemma that I was hoping you guys who have used the full version of construct2 maybe can help me with. - Should I buy Construct 2?

I've been looking for a while to create mobile games both for Android and iOS as a fun hobby. Since I work more than full time I don't have time to learn the depths of coding but more create fun games that I myself want to play. I have used the evaluation version of construct 2 and also have a colleague that have bought it for his hobby.

The dilemma I have is that Construct 2 says it support export to Android and iOS but my understanding after looking trough the forum and trying to help my colleague with actually export, convert, build and publish a game is a nightmare using Construct 2 compared when looking at forums for competitors software.

It doesn't seem to be an easy way to export, convert and build game for those devices when using software such as Intel XDK without getting into problems. There is no official guide, youtube video or forum post that is up to date with the topic, and looking trough the forums both here and the Intel forums there seems to be problems and workaround that is not the most stable. (Speaking from experience when my colleague tried to build his game using Intel XDK)

On the other hand when looking trough competitors they have up to date guides, easy to follow steps and even sometimes built in to the software themselves easy to follow steps to publish to Android and iOS.

So to my question, is it worth spending the $99 on Construct 2 with the goal of easy publishing or should I spend more somewhere else to get what I'm looking for? (the hassle free building and publishing)

What are you guys the experience in building "native" apps? Have I maybe overlooked an official up to date guide that actually works? How is the performance in your games on phones?

I really like Construct 2 and the way it handles game creation and that is where my dilemma comes in since I want to believe that this is the best option for me...

Construct 2 is a html5 based game engine. It isn't native and as Ashley (Founder of C2) said on his blog, Native doesn't mean it is faster, it also has it's own advantages and disadvantages. C2 compiles it's game like all html5 games do it, through IntelXDK, Cocoon.IO, Phonegap and etc. . I have tried both Cocoon.IO & IntelXDK and out of the 2, IntelXDK crosswalk is the best since it has less disadvantages than Cocoon but you are free to try which of them you prefer.

It is true that IntelXDK looks tough and not working but actually once you know how to use it, you'll know that the program isn't the problem but it is actually you. Just try and try (experiment) , ask people on the forum and search for tutorials & guides if you need to. And actually most problems isn't caused by IntelXDK but it is caused by the third-party plugins like IAP, Admob and etc. and not IntelXDK's fault.

Construct 2 for me is a perfect program for 2D game making, the things you can make is almost limitless and supports various platforms. It is totally worth it and normally it shouldn't even be as cheap as this considering all it's features but luckily they made it cheap to acquire more customers, so yeah, lucky us.

Construct 2 is in the top, if you want to find something higher then the only thing I can think of is Unity3D and it is for 3D games. C2 already tops up 2D game engines currently available.

I recommend you go for it.

The Things you can create is only limited by your imagination. If you don't have the skills then use your motivation as a natural force to exceed all expectations. Chadori RebornXD

Tried a lot of different engines both 2D and 3D. So far the most impressif one for 2D is C2. game Maker can be quite powerful too but can become more difficult to use if you are not a programmer. So from my personal experience, C2 is better because of its quality, power, versatility for artists, designers and programmers, and users are very helpful in the forums so whenever you might run into an issue, wont be long before you get your answers.

I have a dilemma that I was hoping you guys who have used the full version of construct2 maybe can help me with. - Should I buy Construct 2?

I've been looking for a while to create mobile games both for Android and iOS as a fun hobby. Since I work more than full time I don't have time to learn the depths of coding but more create fun games that I myself want to play. I have used the evaluation version of construct 2 and also have a colleague that have bought it for his hobby.

The dilemma I have is that Construct 2 says it support export to Android and iOS but my understanding after looking trough the forum and trying to help my colleague with actually export, convert, build and publish a game is a nightmare using Construct 2 compared when looking at forums for competitors software.

It doesn't seem to be an easy way to export, convert and build game for those devices when using software such as Intel XDK without getting into problems. There is no official guide, youtube video or forum post that is up to date with the topic, and looking trough the forums both here and the Intel forums there seems to be problems and workaround that is not the most stable. (Speaking from experience when my colleague tried to build his game using Intel XDK)

On the other hand when looking trough competitors they have up to date guides, easy to follow steps and even sometimes built in to the software themselves easy to follow steps to publish to Android and iOS.

So to my question, is it worth spending the $99 on Construct 2 with the goal of easy publishing or should I spend more somewhere else to get what I'm looking for? (the hassle free building and publishing)

What are you guys the experience in building "native" apps? Have I maybe overlooked an official up to date guide that actually works? How is the performance in your games on phones?

I really like Construct 2 and the way it handles game creation and that is where my dilemma comes in since I want to believe that this is the best option for me...

I agree that there should be an official guide for XDK, updated with each new version of XDK y C2.

That said I must admit that I have started using Godot after learning some python.Its just more powerful and supports export to native - which means smaller file size of the games. That is important for mobile.

Construct2 - apart of being easier to prototype in - also has a better debugger than godot. I still use it to prototype a game and experiment. It is simply genuinely faster to get something up and running in construct2.

But if you want more control and are serious about programming - learn a scripting language.

@zapmore I was in exactly the same position as you about 12 - 18 months ago. I wanted to try building games specifically for mobile and wasn't sure if I should try C2 for the very same reasons you mention: research seemed to indicate additional hurdles getting your game onto mobile with C2.

I actually tried Game Maker first, and got a crappy prototype half working before deciding that even supposedly 'easy-to-use' Game Maker was going to be too steep a learning curve for my dumb, non-programmer brain.

After stalling for a while I looked again at C2, and while I still had doubts about how easily I would be able to publish to mobile given all the gripes I read about third party wrappers and poor performance etc etc I decided to give it a try. I attempted to make the same prototype on C2 and was able to get it up and running easily compared to my efforts with GM. I have recently started testing a very early version of my game on mobile (initially with a fair amount of trepidation... thinking XDK would be a steep learning curve) but was pleasantly surprised how well it worked. I had no major problems getting my game to run smoothly as a native app on iOS and on Android once I found the right information on the forums. Theres a few things you need to get right. Like I found information in this thread and this blog post to be a big help. You have to export with WKWebView selected to get decent performance on iOS.

However I should say that my game is simple, and I haven't tested in-app purchases, ad networks or achievements yet. So... probably Ill start to experience challenges when I get to that stage.

I think its possible that people have success getting their games onto mobile with C2 but we may not hear about it on the forums. People will always come and post when they run in to troubles and need help, but not so much if it's plain sailing. So for all the people posting about problems they encounter trying to get their games onto mobile, i would hazard a guess that there plenty of others who have the various hoops figured out and are happily publishing their games (thats purely speculation on my part tho).

Thank you all for the input and it seems like the consensus is that it is an easy and good software which has it quirks but that often can be sorted out after some digging or help from the community. You have strengthen my stance on the buying side of my dilemma but as @Mirlas and others have pointed out, would be good with an up to date official guide on how to build the game for phone/tablets, that you have spend precious time developing. It scares me to see things like this on the official facebook page posted just a few days ago and I cringe on how the answers are handled by the Scirra staff.

I will give the full software I try and buy it for now, not because I have high hopes for a smooth operation in exporting, but for the easy software they have created and also the great community that I have seen both in this post and the past. Thank you all!

But I will give a shutout to the staff of Scirra if they even read this. I work as a manager for a fairly big customer service corporation and have many years of experience on how to handle consumers, and if the consumers think there is a problem, even if you now there is non, then there is a problem and you should not only listen to them, but also come back with relevant answers, since these post will scare away potential buyers in the future. Lets say I was still a student wanting to play around with app development and see these forums and facebook post, no official up to date guide and errors reported by the people, I would have hard time spending money on something that maybe will not work. So please take care of future costumers and listen to the people since you never know when a potential buyer sees your posts.

Thank you all, and see you in a while when I'm ready to export my first game

@Silverforce When you say you get outstanding performance on iOS, what kind of Apple devices are you testing on? For me its the other way around, I get excellent performance on my new Nexus 5X but on my older iPhone5 I get slower performance.